Anything But a Fairy Tale
by TheSwanWriter
Summary: If anyone had told Emma Swan before she started at her new school that she would end up falling for her nemesis, she would've been surprised, mainly because she didn't even think she'd have a nemesis. Well, to be honest, she has a harder time believing it after it actually happens, and she doesn't even really know how it began. Swan Queen high school AU.


A.N. No, I haven't abandoned my Avengers fics, but this ran into my mind, and it wouldn't leave. Plus, I am unabashed about my love for high school AUs, and they're so much fun to write.

So, here is my insane multi-pairing HS fic, full o' pairings. Like chock full. Oh, and no OCs.

Still don't know who's going to end up with who, but it's going to have plenty of possible relationships, straight and not.

And I just realized that I ship Emma/pretty much every guy that isn't in her family. Oh well.

Oh, and guest appearances from certain people who just happen to be Emma's current foster family because heck, they aren't OCs, but they might as well be. They've wandered from their fandom. (Bahaha, I've sent them off, I know not where.)

Enjoy the show!

Chapter One

It was a Saturday at the end of July, and Emma Swan fiddled with the sleeve of her black jacket. She debated taking it off, the social worker's van was freaking *hot*, and she was taking forever to get back to the van and tell Emma she could go inside. How long did it take to talk to her new foster parents anyway?

Emma knew she'd be out of town before she got attached to them. To be honest, she didn't know why they couldn't just stick her in an orphanage until she turned 18. It was only two years away, and It'd be preferable to jumping from family to family. None of them liked her. She was used to it.

The social worker returned to the van and said something that Emma didn't pay attention to, but she knew it meant that she could bring her belongings inside and get settled. It always did.

Emma pulled up her backpack from the floor of the van where it had been sitting next to her feet. She slung it over her shoulder and marched up the stone steps to her new home in Storybrooke, Maine.

Storybrooke. Emma scoffed. What a fanciful name for a town, like something out of a fairy tale.

She scoffed again at that. Her life was anything *but* a fairy tale. She tried to be positive, at least around her foster families. She hoped maybe one day, it'd be enough for them to let her stay.

The house itself was enormous on the outside. 'Great,' Emma thought to herself. For Emma, that was a sign that they fostered a buttload of kids, and usually cared nothing about them.

It looked like something out of 1904. A Victorian mansion, essentially. It was probably a lot uglier on the inside.

The social worker drove off, leaving Emma alone with her bag and her thoughts. And two men looking out of the door waiting for her.

"Hello," The shorter one with dark hair greeted. "You must be Emma. I'm Charles Xavier."

"Erik Lehnsherr," The taller one said. Emma assumed he was a man of few words, or he just wasn't too terribly fond of children or teenagers.

"So." Charles clapped his hands together. "You'll be staying with us for awhile." Charles then gestured to the stuffed backpack in her arms. "Is that all you have?"

Emma realized she hadn't said anything yet. "Yeah."

Well, she was *trying* to think of something more eloquent.

"Well, since you'll be staying with us, you better come meet the others," Charles announced.

"Others?" Apparently, Emma was fond of one-word sentences now.

"Didn't they tell you that we had more foster children?" Erik replied.

Emma thought for a moment. Yeah, they probably did. She just wasn't paying attention. She never listened when they told her about her new foster families, it made her get her hopes up, think that maybe this would be the one family that would keep her. Then her hopes crash and burn. A vicious cycle, but it always repeated, again and again.

"Yeah, I forgot." Emma practically face-palmed right there. 'Forgot, really? That's the best you can do?' She thought to herself, annoyed. She decided to shut up before she said something stupid, like "I'm glad to be here, I hope you like me." or something equally stupid sounding.

"Quite a lot of others. I'm afraid you might be sharing a room," Charles apologized as they entered the room.

"I'll live," Emma responded with a shrug. On the inside, she was already hoping.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

So, whole bunch of 'siblings'. There were Angel and Raven, her roommates, who were friendly enough. Sean, who was a... interesting person. Alex (A typical jock.) and Hank (A huge nerd. Even had those stereotypical nerdy glasses.), who, though Emma assumed they were together (A gaydar was one of her gifts.), vehemently denied it. (Her lie detector went off there, but she let it alone.) Darwin, who was a quiet, keep-to-himself kind of guy, and then, there was the one person Emma actually decided to care about, the only one who wasn't a teenager: a ten year old named Henry.

Apparently, he'd lost his parents in a house fire, and he was just about the sweetest kid Emma'd seen in a while.

He wasn't hardened by their deaths, not really. This was his first foster family, and he liked them very much.

Emma thought it was adorable how much he talked about things he didn't know much about. Like high school, and his teenage siblings. He claimed Alex and Hank were kissing at school once, but apparently he heard it from his friend Grace, who heard it from her brother, Jefferson, so Emma figured he was about as reliable as a ten year old could be.

But she liked him anyway. He was like a little brother, even though she'd only known him a few hours, she was attached to him.

Apparently, he had a babysitter who was ridiculously protective of him. She came over during the afternoons and nights on Saturdays and Sundays whenever the rest of the house was gone. Emma never thought she'd be going anywhere, so she told Henry that she would babysit him, which he was ridiculously happy about.

Emma doubted that Henry's babysitter was as nutty as he described her. He thought she was going to turn into a manipulative evil queen out of his storybook when she was older. Emma thought his claims were wildly exaggerated.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The one bright spot in Regina Mills' dreary, hot, boring summer was Henry.

She babysat him a lot, and loved him to pieces. She didn't have many friends (That part she didn't even have to try to understand.), and Henry liked her. He didn't like how protective she was, and that she always looked up in-depth reviews for PG movies to see if they were okay for him to watch, and that she wouldn't let him play outside unless she went out with him (Kidnappers, anyone?), but it was all for his own good. Lots of bad things happen to young children during the evenings, and Regina kept up to speed on everything. (She watched the news.)

So, when her mother barged into her room (She *never* bothered to knock.) and handed her the phone, saying it was Charles Xavier, the last thing she expected to hear was that she was fired.

"I... I can work for free, if you'd like. I understand if you can't pay," Regina said, hoping to change his mind.

"Ah, no, that's not it at all. I'm afraid that he won't need to be babysat anymore-"

"But you're always gone on Saturdays, did you replace me?" Regina interjected.

"Not exactly. We're fostering a teenager, Emma Swan, and she doesn't do anything on the weekends, so she babysits Henry," Charles explained.

Emma Swan. Who was this Emma Swan, and how could she just swoop in and steal Henry?

"Yes sir, call me anytime if you need me. Moment's notice, even. I don't have any friends to hang out with," Regina replied.

"Don't worry about Henry, he's very happy. Absolutely adores Emma." With that, Charles hung up. Leaving Regina angry and jealous at the same time. Henry probably liked Emma better than him.

She already knew that she wouldn't like Emma Swan.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"I'll miss you."

Phillip sighed, looking down at his shoes. "I know, Aurora. I'll miss you too."

"I don't suppose I can do anything to make you stay?" Aurora asked hopefully.

"I wouldn't go if I had a choice. I promise I'll be back to visit," Phillip assured.

Aurora sighed again. "It's not fair. I don't even *want* to go to school if you won't be there."

"I promise you'll love it. Mulan will show you around, and you've still got two weeks before school starts. We can talk on the phone," He offered.

"Not the same," She replied softly.

Phillip leaned in and gave her a chaste kiss, hearing his father honk their car's horn. "I have to go. I'll miss you!" He shouted as he ran to the car.

"I'll miss you too," Aurora called after him, but it was more of a whisper.

She was losing everyone. Her father just died, and her mother was working now, so until school started, she was staying with her Aunt Mal. Her aunt was a horribly mean woman, naturally pretty, but it really was only skin deep. She had friends only because they were scared of what she'd do if they weren't. She always ordered Aurora around, like a servant.

And now Phillip.

She really couldn't stand much more of this.

Aurora turned and walked back inside her house, shutting the door softly and hoping Mal didn't hear and realize she'd been outside with Phillip instead of practicing her piano, flute, or whatever it was that she was supposed to be doing.

-/-/-/-/-/

Phillip knew that Aurora wasn't going to be happy if she was alone, so he knew he had to convince Mulan to talk to her. That was easier said than done, especially over the phone.

He called her up from his hotel room in New York the next day.

"Hey Phillip, I miss you already." He heard her familiar voice ring through the speakers.

"I miss you too. Listen, I need a really, *really* big favor from you."

Mulan groaned into the device. "You just left and you're asking favors, is that fair?"

"I don't know. Listen, you know Aurora, right?"

Mulan scoffed in her head. How could she *not* know Aurora? She was all Phillip ever talked about. Aurora this, Aurora that. Mulan was almost green with envy, but she ignored it, because Phillip was happy.

"Yeah, yeah, Aurora. What about her?"

"Well, since you already know she's going to Storybrooke High this year-"

"Whoa, no, hold up, you never mentioned that," Mulan objected.

"Oh, uh, whoops." She could practically see his sheepish expression.

"Whatever. Go on," She gestured, stopping after a second after realizing that no duh, he couldn't see her.

"I need you to look after her," He said after a deep breath.

"Look. After. Aurora."

"Yeah."

Mulan paused momentarily. "Sure."

Phillip raised an eyebrow. "Sure?"

"Yeah, sure," Mulan mumbled.

"Wow, that was easy," He said in surprise.

"Yeah, hurry up and finish talking before I change my mind," Mulan responded. She'd do anything for Phillip, even watch his annoying girlfriend.

"She doesn't know about... Well, a lot of stuff. Her mother's super overprotective, I'm surprised she's allowed to see me. Sex isn't a word in her vocabulary-" Mulan laughed. "Neither are many 'curse' words, so just..." He paused and sighed, "Look after her, please."

"Anything for you," Mulan replied before hanging up, and absently wondering what she'd gotten herself into as she decided to read a book and forget about the whole Aurora issue for awhile.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

One thing Emma wasn't too terribly fond of was the fact that everyone in her new family always woke up early, even when there was no school. Charles claimed it was important to keep your sleeping schedule the same, and it wasn't like you could just sleep in, because everyone would be so noisy and you'd inevitably end up getting up. This happened every day, Saturdays and Sundays included.

So when two weeks had passed since Emma's arrival, and it was Monday, and everyone woke up early, she thought nothing of it.

Until Henry told her it was her first day of school. To which Emma promptly dashed out of bed and pushed Darwin out of the way so she could get to one of the bathrooms first.

Everyone else was all ready to go, and Emma was scrambling to find an outfit. She pulled a pair of her favorite dark-wash jeans and a gray tank top out of her dresser, and, only after putting them on, realized it might be a bad outfit considering it was probably pretty chilly outside.

Emma heard the school bus and realized she didn't have time to change nor to eat breakfast, so she grabbed her backpack off her floor and her lunch money from Erik, gave a quick goodbye to Henry, and dashed out the door, hoping she looked presentable enough.

Emma decided to sit herself in the back, thinking she'd rather not sit with anyone, lest she end up getting attached to them, too. One more thing she'd have to be upset about when Charles would decide it 'didn't work out.'

She shivered, and realized she forgot her jacket.

"Freakin' Augusts," She muttered under her breath.

"Hey, what's wrong with August?"

Emma turned from the window to see the invader of her thoughts. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He looked a little like Charles, but more attractive.

"Uh, nothing, it's just freaking chilly and I don't have a freaking jacket," She retorted to the stranger, putting emphasis on the 'freaking's.

"And you're saying 'freaking' too much. Do that at school and they'll get after you, they're very strict," He warned in an overly serious tone.

"I could say worse," Emma bit back.

"It's not going to work, you can't scare me off with your little automated defense systems." He sat down next to Emma.

"Well, what if I asked you to leave because I'm an antisocial introvert who'd rather be left alone?" She asked, taking her gaze off the stranger in the motorcycle jacket and looking back out the window.

"I'd leave, but you're not asking."

Emma turned to him again.

"August Booth. And personally, I love August. The end of summer, the beginning of fall. No big holidays. Just a plain old month," August said, switching back to the original topic.

"August is a fine month," Emma reiterated. "I was just a little cold."

"Need a jacket?" He offered Emma his.

"No, I'm fine," Emma replied.

"The least you could do is tell me your name," August suggested.

"Oh August, leave her alone. Can't you see the poor girl's miserable enough having to talk to you?"

Emma wondered if everyone at Storybrooke High was this social with the new people.

This invader had an accent that Emma couldn't place. It sounded Scottish, so she went with that. He also had dirty blond hair that was cut a bit long.

"Oh, shut up, Gold. You're just jealous because the ladies love me more than you," August said, rolling his eyes.

"I can get any lovely lady I want, I'm sure, the only reason I don't have a girlfriend is because, unlike you. I have standards," The guy named Gold replied.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a lady that either of you are going to ensnare, so you can just leave me alone," Emma responded. "Emma Swan, if you must know."

"Emma, you're no fun," August said, bounding off the bus as the doors slid open.

Emma glanced at Gold as she got up.

"Okay, who names their kid 'Gold'?" She asked, walking up to him.

"It's my last name," He answered.

"Uh, okay, what's your first name?" Emma said.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." He smiled. "See you later, Miss Swan."

Emma wondered if everyone at school was this... colorful? Interesting? Bizarre? Perhaps weird names were popular in the town.

Emma walked to her locker, hoping whoever was her locker partner may have disappeared or was absent or something.

Locker partners. Emma groaned. Apparently, they needed another week to assign her her own locker, so for this week, she was stuck sharing.

As long as whoever it was kept to themselves, she'd be fine with it.

Emma shoved a few of her binders in the locker, the ones she didn't need for her classes before lunch. She noticed a key ring with an apple keychain, two keys, and a key fob on it. She figured it belonged to her locker partner. Why couldn't she have gotten a partner who would never use it?

She shut the locker and looked to her right. There was a girl having a ridiculous amount of trouble opening her locker and looked almost like she was ready to cry.

"Hey, forgot your combination?" Emma asked.

The girl with brown wavy hair looked at her. "Oh, yes, I suppose I should've memorized it better. Now what will I do?"

Emma glanced at the lanyard around the girl's neck that held her student ID. Aurora was her name, apparently. Emma saw writing on the back as it turned on the lanyard slightly.

"Uh, back of your student ID?" Emma suggested.

"Oh!" Aurora looked at it and smiled in relief. "Thanks so much, uh...?"

Emma really wanted to say, 'Forget about me, I was just being helpful, I'll be moving soon enough anyways.' and walk away.

"Emma. Emma Swan."

"Aurora Munroe*, but uh, you already knew that from my ID." Aurora laughed nervously. Nervous laughter nearly always annoyed Emma, she was so bad at comforting nervous people.

"Yeah, see you around," Emma said, and left, feeling like she may have been slightly rude.

Aurora bit her lip. It was so weird here. She hadn't even gone to Walmart until she was 13, let alone high school. Phillip informed her that no, it was *not* normal at all for a homeschooler to be as sheltered as she was, her parents were just overprotective. She was their only child, and they couldn't have any more, so she was very special to them. Her mother was the worst, but she loved her anyways.

Her father died during the summer in a plane crash while he was on a business trip. His three sisters, (Aurora's other aunts, who she adored, much more than Aunt Mal.) moved away soon after that, and Aunt Mal moved to Storybrooke to help out Aurora's mom after that.

So she hadn't had the best year. The bright spot was Phillip, her amazing, handsome, gentlemanly boyfriend. Her parents met Phillip's parents ages ago, and they were very close friends. Then they moved.

So Aurora was at her locker, and she was all alone, and she didn't even know where her first class was. (Her mother took her to orientation, but she didn't remember most of it, the nerves didn't help.)

"There you are, I was looking for you!"

Aurora recognized the voice, Phillip has introduced them a while back.

"Mulan, oh thank goodness you're here!" Aurora cried, attracting several stares from nearby.

Mulan flushed. "No need to be loud."

"Right, uh, sorry," Aurora whispered.

Mulan didn't bother telling her to talk normally. "Okay, now that we've confirmed that you are more like a kidnapped kid hidden from the world than you are a homeschooler, let's get to class."

"I can take care of myself, I just need you to show me the way," Aurora said defiantly, though she really was glad for the help and company. Isn't this how everyone acted in the normal world?

Mulan glared at her. "Fine, whatever. I don't like you either, but Phillip told me to help you out, so I will. Think of me as your personal chauffeur or help desk or whatever," She said in annoyance.

"Personal chauffeur, I like that," Aurora said with a grin. Mulan knew she was being like this just to get under her skin, so she ignored her.

"Whatever. We both have... Trigonometry," Mulan glanced at Aurora's schedule. "*You're* taking trig?"

"I'm smarter than I look," Aurora huffed.

"Okay, whatever," Mulan led her away, biting her tongue to keep from giving her bad instructions and making her end up in a different class.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Regina got out of bed and yawned, glancing at her alarm clock and muttering under her breath.

"Mother! Why didn't you wake me up for school? I'm going to be late!" She dashed to the closet, grabbed the outfit she'd spent hours planning the day previously, and ran to the bathroom to get ready.

"Sweetie, you'll be fine, I made you a special healthy egg-white omelette, I wanted to make sure it was done in time!" Cora hollered up the stairs.

"Egg-white omelette? Gosh Mother, I'm all for health, but can't I have chocolate chip pancakes or something like a normal teen?" Regina muttered to herself and rolled her eyes. She finished getting dressed and started applying her makeup, taking special care to make sure she didn't smear her mascara or anything.

"Regina, your outfit's much too colorful, how do you expect people to respect you if you look like a clown?" Cora tutted as she set a plate down in front of Regina, who sat herself at the table.

"Mother, they're designer jeans," Regina said. "I look respectable."

"Yes, but you're wearing a t-shirt. A blue t-shirt."

Okay, maybe she spent two minutes planning the outfit, whatever. Her makeup looked awesome.

"Alright Mother, I have to go," Regina ran out the door, not bothering to finish the omelette.

"Drive safe!"

Regina pulled her keys out of her Coach purse and unlocked her black 1966 Mustang. The car that she absolutely adored but her mother hated. She claimed it looked old, and Regina would be better off buying a brand new Ferrari. The Mustang was a present from her late father, it was his favorite car, and the only one her mother didn't sell after her father's death. He had collected vintage cars.

Regina wondered if her mother was going to set up another date for her and that wannabe lawyer/brain surgeon/whatever high paying career he was aspiring for. Her mother was usually determined to rule every bit of Regina's life, and she claimed it was all so she could have everything Cora never had. Regina didn't care, she wanted different things.

She ran a few red lights, speeded a little bit, but it was okay, she got to school before the bus.

She went to her locker and put her key ring in it. She really didn't need to lose her keys or have some creep steal them. That was the last thing she wanted.

Regina left to her first class, History with Mr. Nolan. She remembered hearing about Mr. Nolan when she was a sophomore. Everyone loved him, apparently he was a really charming teacher.

Regina sat herself near the front, as she was determined not to get sat next to any of the annoying losers she sat next to last year, like August. Ugh, especially not August.

Nobody decided to sit next to her, which she was glad about, a little bit.

Mr. Nolan entered the room as the rest of the students filed in through the doorway, and he sat as his desk while he waited for them to continue entering. Regina wished they'd hurry up.

Regina started doodling on the corner of a piece of paper as Mr. Nolan was talking, then she paid attention as he called attendance.

"August Booth."

"Present."

Regina scowled. He just *had* to be here, announcing his presence in his typical annoying attitude. Blah blah, people she didn't care about.

"Regina Mills."

"Here," Regina announced.

Emma, who was sitting in the back near August (Totally unintentional.) raised an eyebrow. So she was Henry's monstrous babysitter. She didn't seem *too* bad.

Mr. Nolan continued down the list of students, soon reaching Emma.

"Emma Swan."

"Yeah," Emma said nonchalantly.

Regina spun her head around and looked at the owner of the voice. So *that* was the Miss Swan who stole Henry. Yeah, she didn't like her very much already.

Regina sent Emma a glare and turned to face the teacher again.

Emma raised another eyebrow. It didn't look like Regina was pleased to see her. Emma wondered what she'd done to make someone dislike her before they even met.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A.N. Everyone's ages:

Seniors: Gold, Ruby, Jefferson.

Juniors: Emma, Regina, Mulan, Aurora, August, Baelfire.

Fifth graders: Henry and Grace.

Adults: Mary Margaret, David Nolan, Archie, other people.

Some people haven't entered the story yet, but they will.

Tell me what ships you want to happen in the reviews. Can't promise I'll make them happen, but I'd love feedback.


End file.
